By J.A. Montalbano, Special to NMBW
As the optics industry evolves, so does Jim McNally. Since his 20-year Air Force career, he has helped launch startups, including TruTouch Technologies Inc. in 2005.
After helping to get TruTouch’s high-tech intoxication detector to market, he left active duty at that company this year to join Applied Technology Associates as director of operations. There, he is working on precision-sensing measurement and control devices with commercial and military applications.
One such optical system improves the accuracy of devices by compensating for movement — such as the shaking of Earth, the phenomenon that makes stars appear to twinkle.
“If you can sense that motion and control it, you can eliminate them and get a sharp image on the ground,” McNally explained. “For example, if you have a vehicle on the ground doing reconnaissance, looking ahead in the road — the car could be bouncing; you could have thermal heat waves altering the view in the desert … It compensates so that the end result is as if they weren’t there.”
McNally earned his doctorate in physics at the University of New Mexico in the 1980s. He has witnessed Albuquerque’s steady growth as a hub of technology and investment over the past 20 years. “Albuquerque is a great place to be doing this,” he said. “Is it Silicon Valley? No. Is it Boston, with its intersection of technology — Harvard, MIT, the medical centers? No. But are we on our way with our own version of that? I think we are.”
Anthony Tenorio, president and CEO of Applied Technology Associates, has known McNally for 20 years. He was looking for someone in the McNally mold to help the company take its next step, and ended up landing the man himself as director of operations. “For the last seven or eight years, we’ve been transitioning from a service company to more of a developer of products,” Tenorio said. “… Jim’s style is more of an attention to detail to make products. He’s a good manager of people — high-technology people, like we have.”
McNally, who remains on the board of directors at TruTouch, says the move to ATA feels natural because the fundamentals of the industry have remained consistent over the years. “I find that the business principles are the same. Customer care is the same,” McNally said. “How do you grow? That’s the same now as it was 15 years ago. “It’s the people. You hire great people. And people are the culture, not the things.”
TruTouch has completed the second generation of the TruTouch 1100, a device that detects intoxication with a flash of light. Where the original required the whole arm to be inserted in the device’s sleeve, the upgrade requires only a hand and has been made more accurate and user-friendly. TruTouch is also working with a carmaker to make a smaller interlock version for vehicles.
From “New Mexico Business Weekly Who’s Who in Technology,” July 24, 2009
Reprinted with permission